The DUP has insisted it has no more to do or say on thepolicing deadlock after Sinn Féin's chief negotiator MartinMcGuinness yesterday warned that there was now a "hugequestion mark" over whether the scheduled ardfheis onpolicing would take place.

Mr McGuinness said that the DUP leader, the Rev IanPaisley, must provide further commitments on his party'swillingness to share power in March and accept thedevolution of policing powers to a Northern Executive byMay next year.

"If that doesn't happen then there is a huge question markover the Sinn Féin ardfheis," Mr McGuinness told The IrishTimes last night.

Against a background of impending crisis in the politicalprocess the British prime minister Tony Blair on Thursdaypublished his assessment that Sinn Féin was prepared toproperly endorse the PSNI and that the DUP was prepared toshare power by March and accept the transfer of policingpowers by May 2008, as envisaged in the St AndrewsAgreement.

Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams generally accepted thatassessment while Dr Paisley "welcomed" the assessment butequally gave no personal commitment to share power by March26th or accept the devolution of policing powers by Maynext year.

Nonetheless, Downing Street and the Northern Ireland Officeinterpreted Dr Paisley's welcoming of Mr Blair's statementon the matter as acceptance of the prime minister'sassessment.

Last night, however, Mr McGuinness contradicted thisposition. "While everyone wants the process to continue tomove forward it is pointless pretending the DUP has agreedto share power by March 26th or to the timetable for thetransfer of powers on policing by May 2008 when theyclearly have not," he said.

More was needed from Dr Paisley to ensure the ardfheiswould take place, said Mr McGuinness. "If Ian Paisley cantell us he agrees with, rather than just welcomes, theprime minister's assessment then we can move forward," headded.

DUP deputy leader Peter Robinson said the issue ofpotential political progress rested solely with Sinn Féin."Clearly Sinn Féin is experiencing severe difficulties onthe necessity to give full support to the police, thecourts and the rule of law. We are not in the business ofmaking their task any more difficult but in reality theythemselves must face up to delivering on the policingissue," he said.

"Dr Paisley issued a very full statement outlining theposition of the party [on Thursday] and both Downing Streetand the Northern Ireland Office have acknowledged theirsatisfaction of it. The DUP does not have anything furtherto say or do on these matters. We stand ready and are fullysupportive of the police, the courts and the rule of law.Only those who are so committed can be eligible forgovernment in Northern Ireland," he added.

Mr Adams said that over the weekend he would deliberate onwhether the ardfheis will take place while he and SinnFéin's party officers are also to meet on the issue onTuesday. Another ardchomhairle on policing may be called bythe officers.

In the meantime, according to Mr McGuinness, contact willbe maintained with Mr Blair and through him the DUP. "Theseare not insurmountable issues, but others, including thetwo governments but in particular the DUP, have to playtheir full part," he said.

Meanwhile, Northern Secretary Peter Hain repeated MrBlair's warning that if policing and the devolution ofpolicing powers were not resolved there would be noelection on March 7th and no devolution.

"It is absolutely vital, at this initial moment, thateveryone concentrates on the big picture," he saidyesterday.

"For it to fall at this point, on the issue of a timeframefor the devolution of policing and justice, would be a bigmistake," added Mr Hain.

DUP deputy leader, Peter Robinson, says Sinn Féin has to"face up to delivering on policing" and that the Britishgovernment was satisfied with his party's response to theproposed timetable for devolution.

He was responding to Sinn Féin's chief negotiator, MartinMcGuinness, who had said there was no point pretending theDUP had any intention of sharing power with republicans byMarch.

Martin McGuinness said last night that it was "obvious" IanPaisley did not agree with the assessment of the DUP'sposition given by the British prime minister Tony Blair.

That assessment was that, in welcoming Mr. Blair'srestatement of the timetable, the DUP leader had agreed toit.

Mr McGuinness said the two were not the same and that SinnFéin needed to hear the DUP “clearly” agree with the primeminister's assessment.

Nationalists, said Mr McGuinness, would not acceptpolitical, legal or policing institutions which are notdemocratic and accountable to the public.

Mr Robinson said though that Sinn Féin had its own internaldifficulties and although the DUP did not want to maketheir task more difficult, only they could sort them out.

Sinn Féin Assembly member for South Down Caitriona Ruanehas dismissed attempts made by SDLP leader Mark Durkan onTalkback today to dismiss the very real concernsnationalists and republicans have about the DUP intentionsto share power.

Ms Ruane said:

"Throughout the past number of months Sinn Féin has beeninvolved in a detailed negotiation with the Britishgovernment on a number of crucial issues, particularly thepolicing issue.

"The SDLP played no part in this negotiation. Instead theysat on the sidelines. As we sought to move the Britishgovernment on key issues including the transfer of powers,plastic bullets and MI5 the SDLP engaged in petty partypoliticking.

"It seems that is continuing today on the BBC Talkbackprogramme as Mark Durkan set out to minimise the very realconcerns nationalists and republicans have about DUPintentions in relation to sharing power and agreeing atimeframe for the transfer of power on policing andjustice.

"Unlike the SDLP, Sinn Féin will not settle short, give up,give in or jump too soon. We will continue to representnationalists and republicans and address genuine concerns,not seek to ignore them or minimise them.

"Contrast this to the approach adopted by the SDLP. Theytold us that there was no point in trying to get rid of theRUC, they accepted MI5, they sat on a policing board whichpurchased plastic bullets, they accepted British Armyinvolvement in crowd control situations, the verycircumstances that led to the Bloody Sunday massacre.

"While Sinn Fein spent Christmas and since negotiating forchange the SDLP it seems have spent their time seeking toreduce issues of key importance to nationalists to thelevel of petty politicking." ENDS

Patrick Murray of Kevin Winters Solicitors said thatalthough he welcomed the ombudsman’s findings in the JasonO’Halloran case, he claimed the report does not go farenough to address the wider failings of police on thenight.

The solicitor – who also represents the family of GerardLawlor – said the Ombudsman needs to look at the wideractions of the PSNI throughout the night of violence andthe subsequent failure to follow up evidence and track downthe perpetrators.

“Collusion does not just cover the handing over ofinformation that may lead to a persons death, it alsocovers a deliberate failure to properly investigate andbring to justice those responsible,” Mr Murray said.

“This report concentrates on the forensic link between thetwo cases – the fact that a different gun was used in theattempt on Jason’s life than was used to murder Gerard,” headded.

“But it ignores the links with the organisation involved,in this case the UDA.

“It does not touch on the failings of the PSNI to policeand protect north Belfast on that night.

“These were interface areas and the PSNI were aware thatthere was an increased risk of loyalist attack on thatnight.

“These are all issues that I will be bringing up with theOmbudsman’s office.

“The investigation into Gerard Lawlor’s murder is the firstreal test of Nuala O’Loan’s office in that it is the firstmajor investigation into the actions of police after HughOrde took control.”

A critical Police Ombudsman report looking at the initialPSNI investigation into the loyalist gun attack on JasonO’Halloran and his friend Jim Burns in 2002 has recommendedpolice reopen the file on the case.

And for the first time The Irish News can reveal thatballistics reports have shown the gun used in the UDAmurder attempt on Mr O’Halloran was not the same gun usedto murder Mr Lawlor.

Jason O’Halloran was injured during a night of terror innorth Belfast, that ended in the death of father of oneGerard Lawlor.

Up to 15-shots were fired at Mr O’Halloran and his friendas they stood at the junction of Rossapena Street andRossapena Square just after 11pm on July 21, 2002.

Mr O’Halloran was hit three times in the leg and groin andunderwent emergency surgery after developing a potentiallylethal blood clot.

His friend Jim Burns narrowly escaped injury after a bulletpassed through his track suit bottoms missing him bymillimetres.

Less than an hour later Gerard Lawlor was murdered by theUDA as he made his way to his Whitewell home along theAntrim Road after a night out.

Earlier that evening another man, Ryan Corbitt, hadnarrowly escaped death after a gunman – a pillion passengeron a motorbike – pulled up outside a bar on the OldparkRoad pointed a handgun at him and pulled the trigger. Thegun jammed and the bike sped off.

Mr Corbitt stopped a passing patrol to alert them about theattempt on his life but police told him to report it to astation the following day and drove off.

Through his solicitor Patrick Murray, Mr O’Halloran made acomplaint to the Ombudsman claiming the police failed tocarry out a thorough investigation into the attempt on hislife.

The report contains information that proves beyond doubtthat more than one loyalist murder squad was operational innorth Belfast on the night.

And for the first time it reveals that a review of policeforensic results shows the weapon used to shoot JasonO’Halloran was not the same handgun used in the latermurder of Gerard Lawlor.

Responding to the report’s finding Mr O’Halloran said: “Iwas shot on the Sunday night, the PSNI called to thehospital to take a statement from me on the Wednesday, atthe time I was on large doses of pain killers and justwasn’t up to it.

“It was almost a month later before there was any attemptto get a statement from myself and Jim Burns and that wasonly because we made an appointment to go to Antrim Roadstation ourselves.

“After we made the statements we never heard another thingabout the case.”

The parents of murdered father-of-one Gerard Lawlor willmeet senior investigators from the Police Ombud sman’soffice on Monday for the first time since allegations thatpolice have failed to act on information supplied by a newwitness.

The 19-year-old was murdered by the UDA in July 2002 as hewalked home along the Antrim Road on the same nightloyalist gunmen went on a rampage in north Belfast.

To date no-one has been charged despite admissions by thethen senior investigator, Detective Superintendent RoySuitters, that police knew the names of his killers.

Speaking to The Irish News one year after the teenager’smurder, Mr Suitters said: “People have been arrested forthis murder, that murder and they have all been releasedwithout charge – so what good did it do to go and arrestthem?”

More recently the family discovered that a new witness, whofirst made a phone call to the confidential telephone lineand then later approached police in person, has came

forward and to date no arrests have been made.

John and Sharon Lawlor, along with Gerard’s partner SiobhanRamsbottom, have now asked Nuala O’Loan’s office toinvestigate a series of apparently serious failures in theoriginal PSNI murder inquiry.

Among their concerns is that evidence provided by a newwitness that could have led to a possible conviction hasyet to be acted on.

The State should not be allowed "to just walk away from theTroubles with clean hands", the son of the first gardakilled in the Troubles has said.

Finian Fallon, whose father, Garda Richard Fallon, was shotdead in Dublin in 1970, has renewed his call for a publicinquiry into the incident.

Garda Fallon (43) was murdered by republican splinter groupSaor Éire during an armed robbery on Arran Quay. He laterbecame the first member of the force to be posthumouslyawarded the Scott Gold Medal .

His son said questions remained to be answered about thecircumstances of his death.

"It is my belief that something untoward went on inrelation to the murder of my father and the IrishGovernment is hiding the truth to this day," Mr Fallonsaid.

Mr Fallon is supported in his campaign by Ann McCabe, thewidow of Garda Jerry McCabe, shot dead in Limerick by theIRA in 1996. She said yesterday she supported the Fallonfamily.

"I would certainly support the Fallon family in theircampaign. They deserve our support and they would have my100% support.

"The family has been a long time looking for answers andany law-abiding citizen has a right to the truth."

Mr Fallon said yesterday his mother died in 1994. "It wassaid at her graveside when she died that she died of abroken heart. She was never able to move on from it."

He said that he hoped "absolutely" that the climate hadchanged in recent years, with tribunals and the way theCatholic Church had been forced to look at its past, andthat there might be more readiness to look at the"lingering questions" about his father's death.

Last month Minister for Justice Michael McDowell said the"appalling murder was fully investigated by the GardaSíochána at the time".

"Arising from this investigation, three persons wereprosecuted, and they were subsequently acquitted by thecourts."

He remained "unconvinced that any further practical step isopen to me which would be likely to alter the outcome inthis case".

South Down MLA Caitríona Ruane and Ballynahinch CouncillorMickey Coogan are to accompany family members who werebereaved in the Loughinisland massacre to Stormont onMonday to meet with Paul Goggins MP. They will be there topresent the submissions on priorities relating to victimsand survivors of the 1994 atrocity and to raise mattersrelevant to the case in more detail.

"The families are determined to unearth the truth aboutwhat happened when their loved ones were shot in theHeight's Bar in Loughinisland 12 years ago. Sinn Féin willsupport them in their quest for truth and justice.

"In the years that have passed since that awful day, thefamilies have patiently waited for answers and have behavedin the most courageous and dignified way imaginable. Theirdetermination to raise serious questions about the murdersand specifically the subsequent investigation into it is acredit to them.

"From 1994 to 2004 there was little or no information orupdates from the RUC into the investigation and despitestrong forensic leads and intelligence, nobody has everbeen charged with this atrocity.

"Monday's meetings will provide an opportunity for thefamilies to raise very important matters relevant to theircase to Paul Goggins, the Direct Rule Minister responsiblefor Justice here in the north.

"Sinn Féin will continue to support the families of thosemurdered at Loughinisland in their campaign for the truthabout what happened on that night 12 years ago. The Britishgovernment need to realise that issue will not go away. Thekillings at Loughinisland had a deep impact on peopleacross this island and the revelations of Britishinvolvement and cover-up have provoked much anger." ENDS

Among a large group of supporters in court was Sinn FeinMEP Bairbre de Brun, who had taught the defendant Irish.

Four police officers gave evidence that Ms Nic An Bhairdhad repeatedly shouted “Tiocfaidh ar la” at them in anaggressive manner on south Belfast’s Malone Road last May.

One of the officers said she was not offended by the words,which she understood to mean “Our day will come” but herconcern was they had been uttered in a mixed area and couldhave offended a member of the public.

Another officer said the defendant’s three male companionshad appeared to be trying to calm her down but she hadcontinued to shout, getting louder.

The constable who arrested Ms Nic An Bhaird said hadshouted into his face.

He warned her she would be arrested if she did not stop.

She continued to shout and was arrested and taken away in aLand Rover to be processed at Musgrave Street policestation.

Defence barrister Neil Fox made an application to ResidentMagistrate Fiona Bagnall to throw out the charge for lackof evidence.

He said the defendant had done nothing but speak loudlytowards a policeman.

“The police have to put up with a certain amount ofannoyance and the court should be slow to invoke the fullwrath of the criminal law when such behaviour is notcriminal,” he said.

A prosecution lawyer said the court had to look at thecontext in which the words had been spoken and he submittedthat disorderly behaviour had taken place.

“The words ‘Tiocfaidh ar la’ have resonated in thiscommunity and have an acknowledged meaning,” he said.

“They are used in a certain way at times and the court isentitled to look at that.”

The magistrate said she was satisfied the prosecution hadmade a case for the matter to proceed.

She rejected the application to dismiss the charge.

The hearing was adjourned until February 12 when Ms Nic AnBhaird and three defence witnesses are to give evidence.

A TELEVISION series charting the financial ruin of aBelfast estate agent once accused of laundering money for amurdered loyalist will be screened later this month.

When filming began in 2004, Philip Johnston (40) was asuccessful and high-profile east Belfast businessmanenjoying an unprecedented boom in property prices.

But what started out as a run-of-the-mill documentary abouteveryday life inside Philip Johnston & Company EstateAgents changed course dramatically when the boss wasarrested and charged with money laundering.

Mr Johnston was being investigated as part of a policeprobe into the financial affairs of former “brigadier ofbling” Jim Gray, who was shot dead in October 2005.

Gray, an ousted UDA paramilitary chief, was shot deadoutside his father’s east Belfast home while on bail. MrJohnston was accused of laundering money for Gray but allfour charges against the businessman were withdrawn lastAugust.

The Public Prosecution Service gave no reason for droppingthe case.

Mr Johnston was left financially ruined and was forced tosell off a chain of agencies across east Belfast, with thetelevision cameras there to capture events.

Mr Johnston said his arrest had had an “irreparable anddevastating impact on my life”.

At the time, Ian Paisley jnr of the DUP said the case was“unbelievably shambolic” and had “cost careers”.

House Traders, a six-part series that starts on BBC1 onJanuary 15, is described as “a dramatic story of changingfortunes, the tangled web of business dealings, thesurvival of the fittest in a highly competitive world”against the backdrop of the north’s burgeoning propertymarket.

“This is a tale of personal and professional swings androundabouts, with a tumultuous human drama at its core,”the blurb reads.

BBC’s Today programme holds an annual poll to find outwhich law its listeners would like to repeal.

One of the options this time was the 1701 Act ofSettlement, which requires Britain’s monarch to be aProtestant and forbids the monarch or heir to the thronemarrying anyone not C of E.

The man proposing the repeal of this particular piece ofdiscriminatory legislation was award-winning author andhistorian William Dalrymple, an expert on Asian religionsas well as being the presenter of a prize-winning radioseries on British spirituality and mysticism.

You probably won’t have heard this interview because it wasbroadcast about 7.25 one morning last week but JeffreyDonaldson came on to say why the Act of Settlement shouldnot be repealed. It was priceless stuff.

Poor Jeffrey claimed the law had to be retained because,among other things, a Catholic monarch would have to giveallegiance to the pope who is also a head of state and,wait for it, that would mean a diminution in Britishsovereignty.

So that obviously means the real ruler of Spain is a Germanpope. The same goes for Belgium.

You thought Zapatero was elected to govern Spain and GuyVerhofstadt Belgium? No, according to the DUP mind, thereal ruler of these modern democratic states is not theelected head of government but the hereditary monarch who’sin thrall to the pope.

Can Jeffrey really believe that? Sadly it seems he can.

Dalrymple, who was supporting his proposal in the sameinterview, claimed that the BBC had to dredge up a unionist– who else? – to support the retention of thisdiscrimination because they couldn’t find anyone in Britainto defend it.

Dalrymple’s exasperation was obvious to all listeningbecause our wee Jeffrey just didn’t geddit. It just neveroccurred to him that Dalrymple, a noted expert on thereligions of the Indian sub-continent, was talking in thecontext of modern Britain, a context that remains eternallybeyond the grasp of unionists.

For people like Dalrymple it’s important to repeal the Actof Settlement not only to demonstrate equality before thelaw to Catholics, a concept unionists have never come toterms with, but even more important in Britain nowadays, todemonstrate equality to Muslims, Hindus and Jews.

Our Jeffrey never thought for a second that by supportingthe Act of Settlement he was advocating discriminatingagainst Jews and Muslims and Hindus, now a sizeableproportion of British society. Jeffrey could only see theAct of Settlement in its 1701 context when the onlybogeyman was the pope.

You have to laugh.

The interview provided a crystal-clear example of the gapbetween unionists’ idea of Britishness and current thinkingin Britain.

Stand by this year for an outpouring of books and articlesand programmes on the concept of Britishness. May marks the300th anniversary of the Act of Union between Scotland andEngland which officially invented Britain as a state.

Westminster is intent on formal commemoration of the event,unlike with the 1801 Act of Union anniversary six yearsago.

Will the SNP use opposition to the anniversary of 1707 as aspringboard for the Scottish parliament elections thefollowing week? Do most Scots see themselves first andforemost now as British, or Scottish? The indications aremost Scots have had enough of being run from London.

One certainty is that in all the analysis and soul-searching this year about the meaning of Britishnessthere’ll be no place for the lost tribe in the sickcounties.

As far as the majority of people on the other island isconcerned the sort of embarrassing nonsense professed byJeffrey Donaldson is an unrecognisable form of Britishness,a version fossilised in the 17th century which everywhereelse was dissolved in the melting pot of 20th centuryBritain.

Perhaps the most dispiriting observation you can make aboutJeffrey Donaldson’s bizarre defence of the Act ofSettlement is that he is representative of the nextgeneration of unionist leaders.

The current leadership is a political Jurassic Park but ifthe mindset exhibited on the Today programme is anything togo by, then the prospect the coming men offer is back tothe future

If Santa did not leave you what you wanted for Christmasthen perhaps you could resolve to get it for yourself inthe New Year.

Santa did not bring devolution but nor did he bring sack-cloth and ashes for the bad boys and girls in Sinn Fein andthe DUP. However Sinn Fein’s political choreographycontinues to amaze observers.

The long-awaited ard fheis will be called sometime thismonth.

It should, if Adams has done his homework, make Sinn Feinan embryonic if not bona fide paid-up member of civicsociety, supporting the police, the rule of law and thejudgment of the courts.

While this move is long overdue it should be welcomed.

Peter Hain is right when he says that there can be nolonger any political cover for the DUP if it doesn’t moveto seal its imminent marriage to Sinn Fein.

Of course that depends on Sinn Fein delivering the correctresult.

Yet with one eye on elections in the Republic, Sinn Feinknows that the party is on weak electoral ground on law andorder issues.

Ever the consummate political machine, a diet full of life-long principles can be swallowed without even a gulp – aspower is the all-important Marxist goal. Who can blamethem?

Why shouldn’t their noses be stuck in the ‘politicaltrough’?

Of course there are those who will never forgo the cause ofmilitant republicanism. Pragmatism to these people meantthat in a war casualties happen and who cares if they werepeople going to work; taking their children to school orsimply being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Perhaps even worse militant pragmatism meant you might evenhave died by being the wrong person.

These warm-hearted individuals once stood shoulder toshoulder with the leadership of Sinn Fein – they knocked onour doors; threatened the political opposition; canvassedfor votes; turned on and off recreational violence asrequired and of course were useful cannon fodder for thefrequent solidarity protests against ‘political’ policing.

More than likely these sons and indeed daughters of Erinserved time and got prime position at Easter commemorationparades – but all of that is at an end as clean sheet‘Johnny/Jane-come-latelies’ swap places with the faces thatdon’t fit with the Sinn Fein electoral strategy of 2007.

To the diehards it was all a ruse; Sinn Fein was apolitical chameleon playing the British government, thegovernment in the Republic and the SDLP at their own game.The IRA had not gone away as Gerry reminded them and thetwin-track approach of ballot box by day and Armalite underthe bed still prevailed.

Of course, day-by-day P O’Neill was subtly changing therules by fax.

The privatisation process of the Provisional movement waswell under way.

The arms were being rented out for personal criminalpursuits or sold back into the international arms market;while the gardai and the PSNI were busy digging up CoRoscommon and Co Tyrone potato fields for the leftovers.

Statues to the fallen went up all over the country; theHunger Strikers were eulogised with graveside oration afteroration and active service medals were given out to the oldBrigade.

Flying columns were disbanded and replaced with columnwriters by the legion. The twin-track has been a single-gauge line for a long time.

Gerry says he wants those who oppose him to come forwardand talk to him about their concerns.

That’s a nice thought.

Unfortunately, in case Gerry has forgotten, those who haveconcerns don’t really go in for talking – they are more thestrong silent types.

Sinn Fein does deserve credit for moving on – albeit late;however the manner by which the party is moving has twoconsequences.

On the one hand it has created a disaffected and dissidentrump and on the other it has given the DUP a veto on thenature and timing of political progress in the north.

Sinn Fein know that the ‘rump’ it is leaving behind islikely to be as ineffective as those who ran the 1950s IRAcampaign – in fact some of them are the same people.

It is clear that 2007 should be the year for politicalmovement.

If there is not the will to commit to devolution and ifplan B exists then it should be implemented.

The new year is about resolve – so let us hope everyone’spolitical resolve lasts longer than my annual commitment togo to the gym.

In the early years of this State, Éamon de Valera andFianna Fáil had to go through a metamorphosis in theirattitudes of support for the Garda Síochána, writes ConorBrady

As Sinn Féin and the IRA square up to the issue of supportfor the Police Service of Northern Ireland, there are someinteresting - and perhaps instructive - historicalcomparisons with what happened here in the early years ofthis State.

In the 1920s and 1930s, Éamon de Valera and Fianna Fáil hadto go through a metamorphosis in their attitudes to theGarda Síochána.

Fianna Fáil's journey of conversion - as much as thatlatterly being experienced by Sinn Féin - underlined anineluctable political reality. Full participation indemocratically based government and full acceptance ofwhatever arrangements a state may make for civil policingare ultimately indivisible.

The Garda was established in 1922 and 1923 and had beenbrought up to a strength of about 4,000 by the end of 1924.In 1925 the Garda Síochána and the Dublin MetropolitanPolice were amalgamated - an initiative which, among otherthings, facilitated the deployment of armed Special Branchunits around the State.

It would be an exaggeration to say that the entire policeestablishment of the new State was pro-Treaty. But it wascertainly the case that very few of Mr De Valera'ssupporters had been placed in the new police - and none atall in the senior ranks.

Significantly, members of the Garda were not generallyviewed as legitimate targets by the anti-Treaty forcesduring the Civil War. Many were injured or wounded bymaverick elements but remarkably, just one Garda life waslost during the civil war as a result of IRA action.

Garda casualties were actually heavier in the period 1922-1927 than during the Civil War proper. As the National Armywas drawn back to barracks and with large-scaledemobilisation, the police became increasingly cast in therole of the State's security force - as distinct from acivil police force, concerned with routine administrationof law and order. "The embodiment of the Treaty in blueuniforms" was one memorable description.

Under the direction of Eoin O'Duffy and his deputies,Eamonn Coogan and WRE Murphy, the gardaí were vigorous intheir dealings with unreconstructed anti-Treaty supporterswho did not recognise the new State or its laws."Political" crime leached over into organised criminalityin many cases. Uniformed gardaí were murdered, in at leastone instance by criminals involved in the poteen trade, inanother by demobilised National Army officers-turned-bank-robbers.

In 1925, with the deployment of armed Special Branch unitsacross every division, the gardaí acquired new muscle andused it vigorously. The "S-Branch" took on and in manycases succeeded in putting out of business those who hadturned to armed crime or who refused to abide by DeValera's "dump arms" order of November 1923.

The Garda in general and the Special Branch in particularbecame the eminences grises of those who opposed the treatyand who refused to accept the legitimacy of the new Stateand the Cumann na nGaedheal administration of WT Cosgrave.

In 1926 De Valera accepted the realpolitik of the IrishFree State and broke away from Sinn Féin to found FiannaFáil. Shortly afterwards he led his deputies into the Dáil,declaring that he had taken no oath of allegiance to theBritish monarch and that he had merely expressed an "emptyformula."

But if Fianna Fáil accepted the reality of the newpolitical institutions, it took most of its members muchlonger to accept the legitimacy of the police force.

Neither did the police recognise much distinction betweenFianna Fáil, Sinn Féin and the IRA, even after Mr De Valerahad entered the Dáil. Not untypical was a case of attemptedmurder in Dublin in 1928.

A police informant, Seán Harling, shot dead a would-be IRAassassin who had waited for him in ambush near his -Harling's - home in Dartry. The dead man was also an activemember of Sinn Féin and latterly of Fianna Fáil.

Local Fianna Fáil councillors passed innumerableresolutions condemning the new police and demanding that itbe dissolved. The Special Branch men were assailed withparticular vehemence in repeated speeches by senior FiannaFáil figures including De Valera, Seán Lemass, Frank Aikenand Oscar Trainor.

Some of the Special Branch officers had been recruited fromthe former ranks of the Oriel House "Criminal InvestigationDepartment," itself a lineal descendant of MichaelCollins's War of Independence "squad."

Special Branch was led by Colonel David Neligan who hadbeen one of Collins's agents in the DMP detective division.Oriel House men were generally - and almost certainlycorrectly - regarded as having been responsible for themurder of Noel Lemass whose body was found in the DublinMountains in 1923.

Fianna Fáil members refused to co-operate with the policeeither by way of giving information or by appearing aswitnesses. It was perhaps hard to blame them. One or twothat did so were murdered. Some disappeared. Many wereintimidated or beaten or were threatened that their homesand properties would be burned out.

The columns of the Irish Press carried frequentdenunciations of the gardaí while letter-writers to theeditor expressed the repeated hope that a Fianna Fáilgovernment would disband or politically cleanse the force.

But as the prospect of taking political power drew nearer,leading Fianna Fáil figures moderated their language andtheir demands. The 1930 Dáil debate on the estimates forthe Garda saw Fianna Fáil spokesmen call for a reduction inthe size of the uniformed force rather than itsdisbandment. The Special Branch however remained the objectof deep hostility and it was clear that its members' futurein a De Valera-led state would be unpromising.

When Fianna Fáil finally took control of government in1932, the designation of the IRA as an illegal organisationwas lifted. Military drilling, outlawed under the Cosgravegovernment, was no longer illegal. Two organised,disciplined forces were now recognised by the law.

It was an utterly confusing, demoralising and dangeroustime for the gardaí.

De Valera made a post-election tour of the country andinspected parading IRA men, ignoring honour-guards drawn upby the gardaí. Many gardaí went into passive mode, drewtheir pay, kept their heads down and waited for thehoneymoon between Fianna Fáil and the IRA to come to anend.

In power, Fianna Fáil quickly set about fashioning thepolice to their own ends. De Valera removed O'Duffy,Neligan and William O'Connell, the deputy head of theSpecial Branch. Many of the rank-and-file membership of theBranch were dispersed to other duties.

With the emerging threat of the Blueshirts, led by O'Duffy,the government took swift action to strengthen the policeorganisation it had so long castigated.

Some hundreds of Fianna Fáil supporters were mobilised byOscar Trainor, issued with revolvers, hastily sworn in asmembers of the Garda Síochána and assigned to the S-Branch.They were dubbed the "Broy Harriers", a play on the name ofthe new Commissioner (Eamonn Broy) and the Wicklow huntingpack, the Bray Harriers. Many went on to long andsuccessful careers in the Garda.

Within a matter of months, the Fianna Fáil government andthe reshaped Garda Síochána were in a state of workablecohabitation. The new minister for justice was feted atGarda Headquarters in the Depot and featured on the coverof the Garda Review. In due course, the honeymoon betweenFianna Fáil and the IRA did come to an end. Fianna Fáil hadto come to an acknowledgment that there could only be onesource of political authority in the land and that it couldsupport only one security structure.

When Mr De Valera reimposed the prohibitions on militarydrilling and outlawed the IRA, it was the Garda Síochánathat had to enforce the law in support of governmentpolicy.

There are many differences in the two scenarios then andnow, but there are similarities in the progressions. FiannaFáil entered Dáil Éireann in 1926 but it took almost sixyears before the party normalised its relations with theGarda Síochána. It has taken almost eight years since thesigning of the Belfast Agreement for Sinn Féin to normaliseits relationship with civil policing in Northern Ireland.

If there is a message for today from the example of the1920s and 1930s, it would seem to be a positive one.

Conor Brady is a Commissioner of the Garda SíochánaOmbudsman Commission. He is author of Guardians of thePeace, a history of the Garda Síochána, published in 1974by Gill and Macmillan. He was editor of The Irish Timesfrom 1986 to 2002.

The Police Ombudsman’s report on the attempted murder of anorth Belfast man over four years ago raises concernsregarding the investigation of this case.

Jason O’Halloran was hit three times in a loyalist drive-byshooting on July 21 2002, less than an hour before fatherof one Gerard Lawlor was murdered by the UDA as he made hisway home along the Whitewell Road.

Those who recall that terrible night will remember theterror which was unleashed by sectarian gunmen who roamedthe north of the city carrying out a series of attacks.

Even though the officer in charge of the investigation intoMr Lawlor’s murder has admitted the police know the namesof his killers, no one has been charged or convicted of hismurder and serious questions remain about thisinvestigation as well as police actions on the night.

Now the ombudsman’s office has found shortcomings in theway the police handled Mr O’Halloran’s case and has calledon the PSNI to reopen the file.

The report also revealed forensic evidence which points tomore than one gang on

the rampage in search of victims on the night in July.

The ombudsman has also been asked to look into how thepolice investigated Mr Lawlor’s murder.

This will be a crucial report, for the Lawlor family, thepolice and the relatives of those who have been murdered byloyalist paramilitaries in recent years and who are stillwaiting for justice.

In the meantime, the police must reopen the file on MrO’Halloran’s attempted murder and demonstrate thateverything possible has been done to catch thoseresponsible.